JP3436692B2 - Cloth cleaning equipment - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a household or commercial cleaning device that utilizes the cleaning action of ultrasonic waves.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ultrasonic vibrator is adhered to the bottom surface or side surface of a cleaning tank to apply ultrasonic vibration to the cleaning liquid filled in the cleaning tank, and cavitation is caused in the cleaning liquid by pressure fluctuation due to transmission of ultrasonic compression waves. Uses a vibrating horn that amplifies ultrasonic vibrations when the object to be cleaned that has been generated and is immersed in the cleaning solution is washed, or when a partially stronger cleaning force is required, and converges from the horn to the object to be washed in the cleaning solution. A method of irradiating the generated ultrasonic waves of high energy density to generate strong cavitation and cleaning is used.

However, since the size of the cleaning tank is limited, it is impossible to clean an object to be cleaned whose entire size is larger than the cleaning tank even if the dirt part is partial, and the cleaning tank is limited. Since there are many unrealistic objects to be cleaned by these methods like the outer wall of a structure even without them, a portable type using an ultrasonic horn as disclosed in JP-A-6-218337 is used. Ultrasonic cleaners have been proposed.

FIG. 5 shows the overall configuration of a conventional portable ultrasonic cleaning machine proposed.

In the conventional portable ultrasonic cleaning machine, a hose 24 to be supplied is connected to the inside of a horn 23 and is connected to the horn 23 from a vibrator 21 via a cone 22.
When the vibrator 21 is driven, the tip of the horn 23 resonates and the vibration amplitude is amplified, and a powerful ultrasonic wave is radiated from the tip of the horn 23 and tap water or the like is supplied into the horn 23 by a hose 24. By providing a plurality of cleaning liquid jets, and by bringing the cleaning liquid close to the cleaning target, the sprayed liquid is filled between the tip of the horn portion 23 and the cleaning target, and strong cavitation occurs, which results in a cleaning effect. Is demonstrated.

Therefore, according to this, the conventional cleaning tank is not required, and it is possible to irradiate and clean any object to be cleaned with ultrasonic waves from any direction, which is not the object of conventional cleaning. It is considered that the object to be cleaned can be cleaned and is very suitable for cleaning partial stains.

Further, in consideration of partial cleaning of cloths such as clothes (collar, sleeve stains, stain stains) as an object to be cleaned, a material such as clothes that is flexible and easily retains gas is generally used conventionally. In ultrasonic cleaning in a cleaning tank, ultrasonic waves are easily attenuated and reflected, and ultrasonic energy cannot be effectively transmitted, which deteriorates cleaning performance. Since strong ultrasonic waves focused directly on the part can be irradiated at a short distance or in direct contact, very effective cleaning without ultrasonic attenuation is possible, and it is easy to have a suitable configuration for this. It is something you can imagine.

[0008]

It is considered that it is very effective to use the ultrasonic horn, which has been supplied as described above, for the partial cleaning by directly approaching or contacting the clothes. High energy density at the tip (tens of W
/ Cm ² ), it is assumed that the case where the washing machine has the handle of the washing machine with the right hand and the left hand under the article to be washed when performing partial washing Although it depends on the thickness, it is very likely that strong ultrasonic waves will be transmitted to the human hand through the wash product, especially if it is a thin wash product. There is a risk of causing burns and tissue destruction.

It is known that bone damage may be caused when such a strong ultrasonic wave is irradiated for a certain period of time every day even if there is no specific damage, and a high cleaning effect can be expected. However, there is a big problem that the general person who does not understand the special knowledge or the danger of ultrasonic waves is very vulnerable to handling and has a health problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the above-mentioned problems and to provide a cloth washing apparatus capable of effectively partially washing clothes or the like without any damage to health even without specialized knowledge.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the cloth cleaning apparatus of the present invention has a guard part surrounding the horn part and inserts an object to be cleaned near the tip part of the horn of the guard part. Since the slit part is provided and the width of the slit is restricted to a size that does not allow the hands to enter at least immediately before the horn, the human body is not directly irradiated with ultrasonic waves, and ultrasonic waves are effectively applied only to clothing. Can be washed by irradiation.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of a cloth cleaning apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

1 and 2 are overall structural views showing an embodiment of a cloth cleaning apparatus according to the present invention. In FIGS. 1 and 2, the ultrasonic vibrator 21 is connected to transmit vibrations. Cone 22 and horn 2 that amplifies its vibration amplitude
3 and the cleaning liquid supply guide 12 for supplying the cleaning liquid to the horn 23 and the cleaning liquid evenly along the side surface of the horn, and at the tip of the horn 23 of the guard part 3 formed so as to surround the horn 23. Cleaning object 5
The slit portion 4 and the slit portion 4 into which the cleaning is inserted are composed of an upper guide 4a and a lower guide 4b for supporting the object to be cleaned 5 on the same plane, and the cleaning liquid is discharged immediately below the horn 23 of the lower guide 4b. The through hole 6 communicates with the drain hole 7 for

Next, the operation of the clothes washing apparatus of the present invention will be described step by step.

First, when the ultrasonic transducer 21 receives a drive signal from an oscillator (not shown), it vibrates at its resonance frequency. The cone 22 has a horn 23 for amplifying the vibration.
, The vibration amplitude of the vibrator is amplified, and the tip portion of the horn 23 vibrates with an amplitude of several times to several tens of times or more depending on the material and shape of the horn. The vibration energy from the vibrator at this time is in the form of being converged by the horn 23, and the energy density at the tip of the horn 23 is very high, and easily reaches a strong power density of several tens W / cm ² or more. is there.

At the same time, tap water or a pressurized supply means such as a pump is supplied to the cleaning liquid supply guide 12 through the water supply pipe 10 and the cleaning liquid is supplied to the tip of the horn 23. 2 has a shape in which both end faces are bent in a U shape and has substantially the same size as the side length of the horn 23. By adjusting the distance (gap) to the horn 23, The flow of the cleaning liquid that flows down pointwise can be made to uniformly flow along the horn 23, and a uniform liquid supply can be achieved at low cost without forming a complicated flow path inside the horn 23.
This is to prevent uneven cleaning performance due to uneven liquid supply.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the water supply pipe 10 and the cleaning liquid supply guide 12 are provided on the left and right sides so that the liquid can be supplied more uniformly, but it is possible to supply the liquid without any problem.

The cleaning liquid that has uniformly flown down from the side wall of the horn 23 is subjected to strong vibration at the tip of the horn 23 to generate capillary surface waves, which are atomized and accelerated to flow down.

Next, the slit portion 4 provided in the guard portion 3 will be described.

The upper guide 4a of the slit portion 4 is the horn 2
It is installed so as to be on the same plane as or slightly upper surface with the tip of No. 3, and the article to be washed 5 slightly contacts the tip of the horn 23 and retains the washing liquid flowing down. It is adjusted so that ultrasonic vibrations can be directly transmitted to the object 5.

The clearance between the lower guide 4b and the lower guide 4b is limited to about 10 mm in the vicinity of the horn 23 in order to prevent the tip of the hand from coming into direct contact with the tip of the horn 23. In consideration of poor usability, the R portion is formed in the vicinity of the guard portion 3 so that the gap becomes large temporarily.

Therefore, when it is difficult to easily insert the object to be cleaned, the R portion may be made larger so that at least a portion near the horn 23 has a predetermined clearance.
However, in practice, the person to be cleaned may be a child, so it seems preferable to set the minimum dimension portion of the slit portion 4 to be slightly smaller.

Further, the lower guide 4b is provided with a through hole 6 immediately below the horn 23 which communicates with the drainage port 7 and has a size larger than the projected area of the lower end surface of the horn 23, whereby the dirty cleaning waste liquid is quickly discharged. At the same time, standing wave formation due to the reflection of ultrasonic waves is avoided, and cavitation noise during non-cleaning is prevented.

In order to prevent the hand from entering the tip of the horn 23 from the drain port 7 side by mistake, the through-hole 6 has a different cross-sectional area between the upper end and the lower end in this embodiment. The reduced portion is limited to about 10 mm in the width direction so that the hand cannot enter, but the width may be limited to at least a part between the upper end portion and the lower end portion, which is not the limitation.

However, since the relatively strong ultrasonic waves are radiated when the hand enters the horn 23 in the vicinity of the horn 23, the position is 2
It is considered safer and preferable to provide a width limit on the lower side by about 3 cm.

In addition, there are several tens used in this type of cleaning device.
In the relatively low frequency range of kHz, the vibration waves are not concentrated in a beam like the high frequency band, so the ultrasonic vibration due to the excitation of the liquid is not transmitted to the flowing liquid with high intensity and is discharged. There is no problem even if you touch the cleaning solution.

Next, the cleaning method will be described.

When a cleaning-required part of the object to be cleaned 5 such as clothes is inserted into the slit part of the cleaning device A and moved to the left or right, the positional relationship is such that the tip of the horn 23 is slightly contacted, and the liquid is supplied. Strong cavitation is generated on the outer surface of the washed and retained water or inside the fiber to obtain a washing effect, and vibration of several tens of kHz with amplified amplitude is directly transmitted to the clothes, resulting in a physical vibration mechanical force. The dirt is extremely effectively removed by the synergistic effect given by, and is quickly discharged from the drain port 7 through the through hole 6. Since the cleaning power can be visually confirmed, it may be decided to stop or continue depending on the cleaning condition.

If the minimum dimension of the slit portion 4 is set to a clearance of, for example, 10 mm that does not allow the hands to enter, a collar of a cutter shirt, which is used for frequent partial washing,
Sleeves, socks, shirts, underwear, etc. can be inserted and washed comfortably, so there is no inconvenience.

FIG. 4 shows the results of a cloth washing test conducted by the present washing apparatus.

In this experiment, the amount of water supplied from the water supply pipe 10 is plotted on the horizontal axis in accordance with the JIS electric washing machine C9606 cleaning test, and an artificially contaminated cloth (simulating collar stain) is used as the test cloth to determine the cleaning degree (%). It is the result obtained. The cleaning degree (%) was calculated by the reflectance method using the following formula.

Degree of cleaning (%) = (reflectance after washing-reflectance before washing) / (reflectance of original cloth-reflectance before washing) × 100 As a condition of the experiment, the frequency of ultrasonic waves was 150 kHz at 28 kHz.
The cleaning liquid used was an output of W, and the cleaning liquid was tap water adjusted to 25 ° C., and the commercially available liquid detergent for partial cleaning, which was commercially available, was applied to the contaminated cloth in a standard amount, and the cleaning was performed for 3 seconds.

From the results, according to the cleaning apparatus of the present invention, if the cleaning degree obtained by normal washing of the washing machine is 40 to 50%, the same level is reached without water supply or only with a water supply of 0.1 l / min. However, when the water supply amount is increased, a cleaning degree of more than 70% is obtained in only 3 seconds, and it is clear that the cloth has a remarkable cleaning effect.

Although it is considered that there is a slight difference depending on the type of cloth, the cleaning degree tends not to increase at a water supply flow rate of about 1 l / min. It is very economical because the amount of water used is very small.

After cleaning, it is more efficient to integrate it with a domestic washing machine or a vanity because of the necessity of a rinsing step for removing the detergent remaining on the object to be cleaned 5.

[0036]

Since the cloth cleaning apparatus of the present invention has the above-mentioned structure, it is possible to obtain a strong cleaning effect without irradiating the human body with ultrasonic waves, and a normal household washing machine. It cannot be completely washed by washing, and partial washing has been done manually by hand.Everyone can easily and safely wash the stubborn stains on collars, sleeves, socks, stains, etc. It can be performed.

In addition, since the contact resistance at the tip of the horn is reduced by ultrasonic vibration, it can be moved very smoothly even when moving clothes from side to side, and the friction damage of the cloth is also reduced. Compared with the damage to cloths that has been conventionally rubbed with a hand brush or a brush, it is possible to obtain a remarkable effect that the cloth can be cleaned without wrinkles and with low cloth damage.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a cloth cleaning device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic front overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a cloth cleaning device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a configuration of a cleaning liquid supply guide of FIG.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a cleaning test result by the cloth cleaning apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an overall configuration diagram showing a conventional ultrasonic cleaning device.

[Explanation of symbols]

3 Guard section 4 slit part 4a Upper guide 4b Lower guide 5 Items to be cleaned 6 through holes 7 drain 10 Water pipe 12 Cleaning liquid supply guide 21 Ultrasonic transducer 22 corn 23 horn

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-52-30068 (JP, A) JP-A-62-137091 (JP, A) JP-A-49-134170 (JP, A) Actual publication 41- 18157 (JP, Y1) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) D06F 1/00-51/02 B08B 3/12 B08B 11/00 D06L 1/12 B06B 1/02

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A tip portion of a horn to which a cleaning liquid is supplied , comprising an ultrasonic wave generation means and a vibration horn for amplifying ultrasonic vibration.
To be cleaned by bringing the object to be cleaned close to or in contact with
In the cleaning device, it was formed so as to surround the vibrating horn.
Insert the part to be cleaned near the tip of the horn of the guard to clean it.
A slit portion for cleaning is provided, and the slit portion is the vibration ho
A cloth cleaning device characterized in that it is set in a space close to the hands, where no fingers can enter . 2. The slit portion includes an upper guide and a lower guide.
2. The cloth cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the cloth cleaning device is formed of: 3. The slit portion is located at both end portions of the slit portion.
The cloth cleaning device according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein a slit width is formed to be large in order to facilitate insertion of an object to be cleaned . 4. The upper guide is the same as the tip of the horn.
It has a positional relationship such that it is on a plane or slightly upper surface
Cleaning apparatus textiles of the請Motomeko 3, wherein the urchin installation was. 5. The minimum width of the slit portion is the slit width.
It is a space of about 10 mm that human hands cannot enter in the part
The cleaning device for cloth according to any one of claims 1 to 4, which is characterized in that . 6. The slit portion is provided directly below the vibrating horn.
In addition, a through-hole that communicates with the drainage port is provided, and the cloth cleaning apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5. 7. The through hole of the slit part has an upper end and a lower end.
At least part of the space between the parts, 10 mm in width below the human hand
7. The cloth cleaning apparatus according to claim 6 , further comprising a rear portion . 8. A cleaning liquid supplied to the tip of the vibrating horn.
Is supplied from above the vibrating horn along the vibrating horn.
The cloth cleaning device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, further comprising a single or plural cleaning liquid supply guides .